CAMPAIGNERS have hit out at an Oxfordshire council which is facing a bill of around £225,000 after a planning inspector found it had ‘behaved unreasonably’.

Action group Save Crowmarsh said the incident, involving South Oxfordshire District Council, ‘stunk to high heaven’ and accused the authority of not making the decision transparently.

Council officers had recommended a 150-home development east of Benson Lane in Crowmarsh Gifford should be approved, but councillors threw it out, leading to developers Bloor Homes and Hallam Land Management appealing.

The council took legal advice on whether to challenge the appeal but decided not to - given that there was ‘very little chance of success’ – and pulled out. Planning inspector Helen Hockenhull then said that was ‘unreasonable behaviour’ and ordered the authority to pay the developers’ costs.

Steve Beattie, one of the action group’s organisers, said: “The planning committee unanimously decided that this is the wrong development.

“About three weeks before the developers put their appeal in, they (the council) decided they were going to make that decision behind closed doors.

Councillors on the planning committee initially refused the development on the basis that it would harm the character of the area, amid concerns about the capacity of local schools and the loss of agricultural land.

Mr Beattie said the action group had requested all of the emails relevant to the appeal under Freedom of Information Laws, and are unhappy that the councillors’ initial decision was ‘ignored’.

He said: “What is the point of a planning committee if it is completely and utterly ignored?

“It stinks to high heaven. What do these people do, who do they represent?

“Does anybody think that is the right use of public money?”

Mr Beattie added that if the situation with the development had happened within a private company, those responsible would be ‘fired immediately’.

In a statement on the group’s Facebook page, following the decision, it wrote: “Crowmarsh Gifford lost its identity as a village last night and became just another part of Greater Wallingford.

“The Planning Inspector, in her wisdom, overturned the planning committee refusal for Bloor Homes/ Hallam Land Management to erect 150 houses on the field east of Benson Lane. Her decision comes among a fabric of deceit and fabrication created by the SODC planning department, which has been hell-bent on getting houses on the field.”

SODC has said it is ‘extremely disappointed’ with the planning inspector’s decision and is within its rights ‘to challenge and negotiate the costs’ and added that it was waiting to see the breakdown from the developers.